An indiegogo Campaign - GLideN64, a new generation, open-source graphics plugin for N64 emulators

[Guild McCommunist]

How long does the freeware take to make without a job?

Depends on what it is and what the scope is.

My point is I don't think a cash incentive should be needed to make a plugin for an emulator, especially at the tune of $6,000.

 

[Sizednochi]

More money = less work = more time = more features

Features that have been implemented easily in any other emulator or plugin for free. Specially "Native Resolution Support" which is something trivial.

I think that means rendering at your monitors native resolution? And it's not so much a paywall, it's more of a "if I have more money, I can afford to work on this longer".

"Rendering at your monitors native resolution" is High Resolution Rendering. By "Native Resolution" you mean rendering at the N64's Native 240p (There's already a pixel-perfect plugin that does this, made by HatCat, FOR FREE btw). And it is a PayWall yes, because what he means is that you're not getting such basic features if you guys don't get him +10,000 bucks.

Besides:

The project aims to provide to the public free of charge the most advanced N64 graphics plugin, with the full source code available under GPL.

Well, where is it then? He clearly did stuff already, he even has videos and screenshots. "B-but it's not done yet!"... Well, bullshit. If it's truly Open Source and under the GPL then it should be available right now, not after he gets the money.

 

[the_randomizer]

Fan fact, the native res plugin is very CPU intensive and doesn't run full speed, nor will it ever run full speed, so there. Don't be so damned butthurt over it, if you hate him so much and hate his plugin, use the ones you've used before. Deal with it. Plugins take time, he doesn't work on it 24/7 so please, just get over yourself already.


Don't give him money then if you guys are so hellbent. Enjoy your slow-as-hell native res plugin from Hatcat then.

 

[Sizednochi]

Fan fact, the native res plugin is very CPU intensive and doesn't run full speed, nor will it ever run full speed, so there. Don't be so damned butthurt over it, if you hate him so much and hate his plugin, use the ones you've used before. Deal with it.

HatCat's plugin has been running fullspeed since forever. And you want to argue system requirements?

System requirements are: graphics card with support of OpenGL 4.2 or better.

Well, tough shit. This won't run on toasters either, just like HatCat's plugin doesn't.

You know, I'm not being "so damned butthurt". It's just you guys are presenting something to me, to this forum, and asking us to donate. Sure. I'm questioning some very obvious and blatant things here, I'm not gonna donate to something blindly. If the best you can do is say "don't be so butthurt lol" you're not helping much.

 

[the_randomizer]

HatCat's plugin has been running fullspeed since forever. And you want to argue system requirements?



Well, tough shit. This won't run on toasters either, just like HatCat's plugin doesn't.

You know, I'm not being "so damned butthurt". It's just you guys are presenting something to me, to this forum, and asking us to donate. Sure. I'm questioning some very obvious and blatant things here, I'm not gonna donate to something blindly. If the best you can do is say "don't be so butthurt lol" you're not helping much.

O RLY? I have an MFing Core i5 3570 and that doesn't seem to be running full speed so, no. Native res is overrated, if I wanted native res I'd rather use the real thing, 240p on a 1920 x 1080 monitor looks like shit anyways. Don't blame me, I didn't make the OP, so you could just post on this thread, you don't have to read this or post on here. Then don't donate, no one is making you.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

On the subject of paying for emulation, I like this idea to be honest.

As long as the source code is put out so it can be improved where possible it could lead to the best of both worlds open source and paid development.

Interesting experiment and should be fun to see where it goes.

 

[Sizednochi]

O RLY? I have an MFing Core i5 3570 and that doesn't seem to be running full speed so, no.

For you.

Native res is overrated, if I wanted native res I'd rather use the real thing, 240p on a 1920 x 1080 monitor looks like shit anyways.

Yeah, it's an "user-demanded feature" so overrated that it needs $4000 to be made. I guess it's overpriced as well.

Don't blame me, I didn't make the OP, so you could just post on this thread, you don't have to read this or post on here. Then don't donate, no one is making you.

Well you're clearly supporting this thing hard and replying to every post by everyone, deflecting questions and giving likes to anyone who says nice things about it. Looks like one hell of an Astroturfing mob going on. But this is not the matter under discussion here.

 

[kristianity77]

End of the day N64 emulation is still pretty pants from where you would expect it to be these days. And things like PS2 emulation and Gamecube/Wii etc all require pretty high end PCs in order to get things running smoothly.

Its plainly obvious that if people took a job on like this on a full time basis that had undeniable talent, then they could bring these emulators to the mainstream, requiring much less powerful specs. My laptop isn't good enough for PS2 or Wii, but is good enough for the rest. But if some group of programmers told me that they could churn out an emu that requires a lot less specs and would be way more compatible purely on the basis that they could all take it up as a full time job for 6 months or so, I'd chuck money into it. Not so much for the end product as much as for the kudos for someone who can do it, to take it on and spend all their time doing it for us to enjoy.

And as for the "You dont have to pay if you dont want to" getting old and boring, why is it? Its a perfectly valid statement! Some people will pay for some things that others wouldn't. Its no different here.

 

[the_randomizer]

End of the day N64 emulation is still pretty pants from where you would expect it to be these days. And things like PS2 emulation and Gamecube/Wii etc all require pretty high end PCs in order to get things running smoothly.

Its plainly obvious that if people took a job on like this on a full time basis that had undeniable talent, then they could bring these emulators to the mainstream, requiring much less powerful specs. My laptop isn't good enough for PS2 or Wii, but is good enough for the rest. But if some group of programmers told me that they could churn out an emu that requires a lot less specs and would be way more compatible purely on the basis that they could all take it up as a full time job for 6 months or so, I'd chuck money into it. Not so much for the end product as much as for the kudos for someone who can do it, to take it on and spend all their time doing it for us to enjoy.

And as for the "You dont have to pay if you dont want to" getting old and boring, why is it? Its a perfectly valid statement! Some people will pay for some things that others wouldn't. Its no different here.

I think we'd best leave the machinations and mentalities of those who are bitter to themselves and let it fester for a while, due to me having a bit of schadenfreude.

 

[Arras]

Features that have been implemented easily in any other emulator or plugin for free. Specially "Native Resolution Support" which is something trivial.



"Rendering at your monitors native resolution" is High Resolution Rendering. By "Native Resolution" you mean rendering at the N64's Native 240p (There's already a pixel-perfect plugin that does this, made by HatCat, FOR FREE btw). And it is a PayWall yes, because what he means is that you're not getting such basic features if you guys don't get him +10,000 bucks.

While he may not add them himself, he'll release the source, so there's nothing to stop someone else from doing it. He's not trying to make a profit or anything, just to enable him to actually spend more time working on this thing. Considering his old plugin took 10 years to develop, it seems to be a case of time = money.
Although honestly I don't understand the resolution thing? If it supports custom resolutions, couldn't you just set it to 240p anyway?

Besides:


Well, where is it then? He clearly did stuff already, he even has videos and screenshots. "B-but it's not done yet!"... Well, bullshit. If it's truly Open Source and under the GPL then it should be available right now, not after he gets the money.

I don't see what's wrong with not wanting to release a half-assed thing. Most devs don't.

 

[Sizednochi]

Although honestly I don't understand the resolution thing? If it supports custom resolutions, couldn't you just set it to 240p anyway?

I don't understand it either: why would something so trivial need time and money to implement? That's what I'm asking, but I guess only Gonetz knows.

I don't see what's wrong with not wanting to release a half-assed thing. Most devs don't.

All Open Source projects have the code available Day 1. Sure for the end user it doesn't matter. But if he's fully commited to the GPL, he should have done that. This only damages his image because he's holding code hostage at this point.

It's not an issue that you or everyone else that is donating is supportive of this, it's ok - I don't hate it or anything like that. Just, I think this could have been handled better by him. There are a lot of things in the air and he's not sorting it out. The stretch goals don't make sense for example as I already discussed.

But I guess he doesn't care much since it's already past halfway funded.

 

[Arras]

I don't understand it either: why would something so trivial need time and money to implement? That's what I'm asking, but I guess only Gonetz knows.


All Open Source projects have the code available Day 1. Sure for the end user it doesn't matter. But if he's fully commited to the GPL, he should have done that. This only damages his image because he's holding code hostage at this point.

It's not an issue that you or everyone else that is donating is supportive of this, it's ok - I don't hate it or anything like that. Just, I think this could have been handled better by him. There are a lot of things in the air and he's not sorting it out. The stretch goals don't make sense for example as I already discussed.

But I guess he doesn't care much since it's already past halfway funded.

I'm not donating, I'm a cheapass and I personally really don't care about N64 emulation.
Also, no - the GPL only ever requires you to make the code public the moment you actually release the work. There's no need to release everything the moment you announce it. The code hostage thing... eh. I don't really mind it myself, so I guess that's just an agree to disagree thing.

 

[Sizednochi]

Well, fair enough.

 

[Vipera]

Good to know places that were born to give the chance to let the developers give the middle-finger to publishers have now become a place to make money off hobbies.

 

[the_randomizer]

Good to kow places that were born to give the chance to let the developers give the middle-finger to publishers have now become a place to make money off hobbies.

Good to know that we have people willing to contribute to a discussion in a civil and non-sarcastic way while actually reading what it's all about, but who are we kidding? Funny how people bitch about this but not about the fact people like Gateway rip people off.

 

[uyjulian]

And the topic goes down the spiral...

 

[the_randomizer]

And the topic goes down the spiral...

I think I may weep openly at this point.

 

[raulpica]

"Rendering at your monitors native resolution" is High Resolution Rendering. By "Native Resolution" you mean rendering at the N64's Native 240p (There's already a pixel-perfect plugin that does this, made by HatCat, FOR FREE btw). And it is a PayWall yes, because what he means is that you're not getting such basic features if you guys don't get him +10,000 bucks.

This x9000. HatCat's plugin is the only decent plugin out there. Gliden64 feels terribly inaccurate when you compare them, and I'm pretty sure it is.

tl;dr, all these guys pouring money over an outdated plugin (it probably still has SO much code made to work on 3dfx...) when they could just send money to someone to create a REAL, ACCURATE plugin based on HatCat's work (which in turn is based on the MESS emulation).

O RLY? I have an MFing Core i5 3570 and that doesn't seem to be running full speed so, no. Native res is overrated, if I wanted native res I'd rather use the real thing, 240p on a 1920 x 1080 monitor looks like shit anyways. Don't blame me, I didn't make the OP, so you could just post on this thread, you don't have to read this or post on here. Then don't donate, no one is making you.

Sorry but it ran pretty much full speed on my E8400, so yeah, you're definitely wrong there.

And it looks AMAZING. While GlideN64 is just blurred and stretched stuff to make it look nice.

I want AUTHENTIC emulation, not "enhanced" crap.

 

[the_randomizer]

raulpica Yeah I think I'm done with this thread , I'll use emulation for >240p and real hardware for straight up 240p. *Hides*

I must be doing something wrong with the plugin, because I have rotten luck, and 240p makes my eyes hurt to be perfectly honest, and I can't uh, well, get it to work, maybe I need his RSP plugin as well, I don't know. That being said, I'm better off not participating in this discussion or having the audacity to voice my opinions on why I like native res on real hardware and filtering on emulation, because well, I'm only pissing people off. So I'll refrain from using my opinions to piss people off, that's the only option for me at this point. Mine are obviously of no worth, so why bother voicing them?

If it were up to people to focus on accuracy, we'd all have emulators that require hexacore processors like Bsnes. No thank you. Emulators shouldn't require super powerful CPUs to run.

 

[raulpica]

raulpica Yeah I think I'm done with this thread , I'll use emulation for >240p and real hardware for straight up 240p. *Hides*

I must be doing something wrong with the plugin, because I have rotten luck, and 240p makes my eyes hurt to be perfectly honest, and I can't uh, well, get it to work, maybe I need his RSP plugin as well, I don't know. That being said, I'm better off not participating in this discussion because I'm only pissing people off.

As long as you have a constructive dialogue, nobody would have anything to complain - you just started criticizing HatCat's plugin without much to back it up and that made you look like a GlideN64 fanboi.

I remember there weren't many configuration options to begin with, funny thing. Also I seem to remember that it's an entirely software plugin, so the GPU shouldn't matter. Maybe your emulator is incompatible with it? (Pretty sure I used 1964, I don't like Project64 because of their entire pay-for-the-betas thing). I might have used a different RSP plugin, can't remember.

Anyway, 240p is the way to go if you're emulating something which RUNS at 240p. Also, my monitor upscaled it pretty well and I didn't see anything wrong with it.